I’m Barry Hott, and I help brands scale profitably with high-performing paid media strategies, creative testing systems, and conversion-focused insights.

I’ve personally managed over $600 million in paid media spend since 2008, overseeing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn campaigns for brands like True Classic, Harry’s, Happy V, Lone River, The Perfect Jean, and many more. I specialize in scaling direct-to-consumer and startup brands spending $200K+ per month on ads with strategies grounded in first principles, logic, and contextualized data insights (tracking what the system sees that you can’t).

I’m known for making ugly ads that convert. Clients trust me to optimize every aspect of their acquisition, from raw creative that cuts through the noise to counterintuitive buying strategies that maximize ROI.

Recent brands I’ve helped grow include Happy V, Keeps, Nuts.com, UrbanStems, MoneyLion, Lumin, Cerebral, Wandering Bear Coffee, Mirror, Athletic Greens, and Spartan Race. In 2020, I helped launch Lone River Ranch Water, which was acquired by Diageo in 2021. All three companies I worked with in 2021 were acquired: Lone River, Thesis, and Jump450.

If you’re a decision maker who wants profitable, scalable ad growth, shoot me a DM.

Barry Hott

You don’t need the most beautifully designed pages in the world.

Too many sites and landing pages are overdesigned.

A lot of "ugly" pages win not because they're ugly, but simply because they're easier to read than their prettier counterparts.

A clean white page with black text in a familiar, unbranded, highly-readable font is easier to consume than a beautiful but busy design 99% of the time.

Does this vary by product, audience, and price point? Of course! As with everything else in marketing:

IT DEPENDS.

But if you prioritize the consumer above all, you usually end up in the same place.

What do they expect?
What do they want to see?
What do they NEED to get them to buy?

What wins regardless of the design:

1. Immediate relevance 🎯

2. CLARITY, readability, and scannability 👓

3. Strong relevant copy and storytelling ✍️

4. LOTS OF relevant real social proof in a variety of styles: text, images, videos ⭐

5. Authority + trust 🛡️

6. SPEED 🏎️

7. Reducing friction ⛸️

8. Handling objections 🙋

9. Minimal distractions and undesired exits 🔇

10. A clear offer and path to purchase 🛒

Growing businesses with ugly ads, streamlined execution, and deep consumer empathy.

I worked at an adtech startup 10 years ago and I remember we had a hackathon, and the coolest idea that got built was a chatbot that could answer questions about your ads.

It never really got built out or worked well, but I always dreamed of having something like that so I can just Slack a bot to get a question answered about my ads.

10 years later and Parker from my biz partner Alex Cooper made this dream a reality. Plus, it does so much more!

I'm excited for y'all to try it:

AI & advertising. Helping you make better direct response creatives. Co-Founder @ Adcrate.

Introducing Parker: the world’s first AI Creative Director. Parker allows any brand to produce 10x more viral ads without hiring more people. 

Here’s how it works:

1) Connect your ad account:
Parker analyzes your historical performance and creative data across your ad account.

2) Add Parker to Slack
Tag Parker like a real employee.
Ask questions. Generate briefs. Break down performance.
Parker works inside your team’s workflow.

3) Enable Autonomous Mode
While you sleep, Parker scans TikTok, identifies winning ad patterns, and delivers production-ready concepts directly to Slack—tagging your team with ads to review.

Parker is not another AI ad maker. AI ad tools are wrappers on top of models like Sora, Veo, or Kling. AI avatars are solved.

What no one solves is the research, analysis, and strategic thinking required to create ads that actually go viral.

Parker solves that.

Check it out here: heyparker.ai
----------
100+ brands including Grüns, Lume Deodorant, and Legends already use Parker to generate more viral ads.

I compiled a list of 100+ AI prompt engineers for hire trained in AI ad creation, including their rates, portfolios, and contact info.

Comment “Parker” and I’ll send it to you. 
----------
If you’ve read this far from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Everything in my life has lead to this moment:

In 2021, I quit a 100k/yr corporate job with no plan. 

I started an ad creative agency and scaled that business to 45 people and $3m/yr making the best ads in the world for David, Huel, Harry's and 50+ more.

Everything I learned, every ad we ever made trained Parker.

Let's normalize turning off our Meta ads one week per year, just to see what happens to the rest of the business (and to take a vacation).

Every brand should do this.

CMO and Co-Founder at Obvi

Ashvin Melwani

Check your Meta ad accounts. 

Noticed something weird that started happening on the 5th.

One metric I track just for pixel health purposes is Landing Page Views / Outbound Clicks. 

Typically this is somewhere between 80-90%.

Since the 5th we have seen this drop to 40%-50%

Nothing regarding the pixel has changed but we did see CAC start to increase since the 5th. 

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this just a reporting delay/issue or Meta not processing events properly right now?

The CTO & founder of HubSpot just spent an hour explaining exactly how brands get discovered by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Most companies are doing the opposite.

I pulled out his top 5 takeaways every brand needs to act on now.

(Brand owners bookmark this.)

1. Let AI models crawl your website. 

Search used to be just Google’s crawler.

Now AI has its own bots.

If you’re blocking unknown crawlers but only allowing Google/Bing, fix that.

2. Start tracking AI traffic.

Most analytics tools already tag it via UTMs.

GA, HubSpot, etc. now show AI referrals just like paid or organic.

If you’re investing in AI visibility but not measuring it, you’re flying blind.

3. Content strategy has changed.

You’re no longer writing for humans first.

You’re writing for AI answer engines.

Narratives matter less.

Clear answers matter more.

Isn’t this CRAZY?

4. SEO fundamentals still apply.

When someone asks ChatGPT a question, it turns that into search queries.

The interface changed.

The ranking inputs didn’t.

5. AI trusts what humans already validate.

That’s why Reddit matters.

Threads with real questions, discussion, and upvotes get indexed heavily by answer engines.

Human signal = ranking signal.

You can do all of this on your own.

Or you can systemize it.

Most tools just tell you where you rank.

But that doesn’t move the needle.

Meridian actually helps execute and improve rankings inside AI search.

If AI visibility matters to your brand:

Click here and give it a try: trymeridian.com

#MeridianPartner #Sponsored

I've been running Meta Ads at Obvi for years now. We've scaled past $100M largely on the back of Meta.

And when we were starting out, every algorithm change would shake us to our core. 

One day something works. Then, suddenly, it doesn’t. And you’re left wondering why your winning playbook just went out the window overnight. 

But what I’ve learned after many years of doing this is that Meta isn’t impossible. 

You just need to build the right systems to make your operations bulletproof against arbitrary algorithm changes. 

Obviously, this is easier said than done. You can’t scale profitably relying on “easy hacks.” You must create the infrastructure that will hold up when the system shifts, costs spike, and data gets noisy.

To give you a head start in 2026, I’m teaming up with the co-founders of DigiCom (Digital Commerce Corporation) – an Inc. 5000-listed agency, which manages massive ad budgets for 8 and 9-figure brands – for an exclusive webinar on the 2026 Meta Ads Playbook.

Here's what we're breaking down:

→ The account structures and bidding strategies we actually use when margins are tight

→ How we approach creative testing without burning cash on guesses

→ The mistakes we see brands make that cap them at $50K-$100K/month in spend

This isn't a "here's what you should do" session. It's what we're actively running right now across $200M in spend.

If you're stuck scaling on Meta or watching profit shrink as you try to grow, this might help you figure out what to test next.

Register for free using the link in comments 👇

taplio

The Battle

Barry Hott

Ashvin Melwani

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The Battle

Barry Hott

Ashvin Melwani

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Barry Hott's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreBarry Hott's LinkedIn Performance